#Carolina mantis

[celestialmacros]

The darkest brown Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) I've ever seen.

August 18, 2024

Southeastern Pennsylvania

[onenicebugperday]

@galacticnova3 submitted: Found this absolute chonker of a lady while looking for a mate for Green Bean Casserole! She either contains multitudes or just had a really good meal.

Wasn't too happy about being gently lifted off my shirt, though. Very offended that I wouldn't let her climb me.

And of course, Green Bean Casserole update! She finished her last molt successfully and is now a very unique looking adult! Mostly straightened out and having no troubles getting around or eating, though her shape still differs from the usual a bit, as do her colors.

She also hasn't lost her somewhat clumsy charm.

Thankfully, this sort of thing only seems to happen outside the vivarium; haven't seen or heard her fall when hanging from the lid or her favorite stick. I ended up moving her back to the "recovery" terrarium since it was already set up to be usable by her and I still need to properly update the mesh lidded one to be safe for mantises. Haven't had a good chance to shop for any kind of screen yet.

Anyways, here is Green Bean Casserole's "you better not be sharing unflattering pictures of me online" look.

That woman is very chunky! Most likely gravid. Usually a wild-caught meal isn't big enough to get her that fat just from eating, but it's possible. I'm so glad Green Bean Casserole successfully molted into an adult and is doing well! And only slightly misshapen lol. Please tell her she's still beautiful and perfect.

[xylocopavirginica]

check out this little cutie i met last night 💕 he’s a male Carolina mantis, Stagmomantis carolina :) i always get excited to find one of these since usually i only find the larger nonnative Chinese mantises here in NC!

[crevicedwelling]

centaurs

[galacticnova3]

@onenicebugperday Bit of an unfortunate update, but not without hope.

A week ago as of posting this, Green Bean Casserole had a pretty severe mismolt. I think they fell and got stuck behind their favorite stick in an awkward position after leaving the exuviae. I only found and assisted them the next morning, but by then their exoskeleton had already hardened up. Thankfully all of their limbs are intact and functional, but, well... The situation is far from ideal, as you’ll see.

At first I was pretty worried they wouldn’t make it; they seemed to be struggling to move around due to the deformity, falling when climbing and generally looking wobbly. I moved them to a different terrarium set up for my flat headed snake Absinthe, both because of the softer substrate and the lack of skinks that might be bold and attempt to take advantage of a weakened mantis. I wasn’t even sure if food would be able to pass through their system, and they had no interest in prey at all, which wasn’t a good sign. However, with some adjustments to the layout of the temporary terrarium I moved them to, they did climb and manage to hang from the lid with some effort. GBC seemed like they were a fighter, and the day after the bad molt they accepted and ate a grasshopper, so I decided to see if I could get them to their next molt and hopefully allow them to recover.

They’ve since adapted to their new shape, and I’ve moved them back to their usual terrarium for easier monitoring and better sun access. They’re climbing and hanging without falling, eating well, and drinking water droplets from the screen lid when I water the terrarium. I’d say they’re about as close to thriving as they could be in this situation! Here’s how they’re looking today. Ignore the escapee grasshopper in the background, its jailbreak was short lived…

I do feel a bit mean for making this comparison, but…

There’s a bit of a resemblance, isn’t there?

[antiqueanimals]

Elements of Zoölogy: A Text-book. Written by Sanborn Tenney. 1875.

Internet Archive

[bugs-are-buddies]

Love is stored in the praying mantis <3

[goldenbeastkeeper]

GUESS WHO'S A BIG BOY NOW

[justgoji]

Cockroaches and mantises are related right

[harleycrittercorner]

Grabbed some herbs for my mom and when I withdrew my hand I had a friend on it

Carolina Mantis

[the-zebra-dragon]

Cauliflower update: she tried to Get a mole on my arm. This felt a bit like being viciously mauled by a raindrop. I am appropriately afraid.

[celestialmacros]

One of the prettiest I've ever seen, with those green eyes. She looks like a tapestry from above. Although we have 4 kinds of mantids in my area, this is the only native one and I'm always happy to find them.

Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina)

September 28, 2023

Southeastern Pennsylvania

[wingedarrows]

Swift III update: he is now my only mantis left but he's crossed the threshold of when the mortality rate starts to drop so fingers crossed he'll make it to adulthood.

Since this last molt he has gotten even more fond of the wiggles:

[worm-gar]

I’m finding myself really missing being able to go out into my flower patch and watch the bugs after work. I can’t wait for it to be warm enough to start getting things in the ground, I’m trying to keep myself occupied with planning for this growing season but I want it to be here already 😅

I hope I get praying mantids again this year. They were some of my favorite to watch and kept the pests in check for me. Like this Cucumber Beetle

They were kinda annoying making some holes in my flowers but were kept in check enough so it wasn’t a problem.

I saved a bunch of seeds from everything I could so it’ll be nice to not have to buy more and they should be more adapted to the area. I think I have room to make another flower bed in the backyard, which means more bugs and plants!

[galacticnova3]

I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO SHARE THEM HERE BUT IPOAF BABIES HAVE BEEN GRADUALLY EMERGING! It started with me discovering two in the ootheca container one night a couple weeks ago, followed by four more the next morning, then a week or so of none. Here’s one from the first night! They’d already hardened up when I found them.

The first batch were all placed outside in nice weather instead of kept in the container because I am trying to minimize mantis baby fratricide. I thought maybe the rest hadn’t survived but then I woke up one day and not only had five more emerged in the container, along with a 6th that sadly didn’t make it, but one had also managed to hatch from a molded ootheca fragment I’d dropped into one of my vivariums! I had broken it off after spotting the mold(which was green and fuzzy) in hopes of saving the portion that wasn’t affected; it had a bit of a smell so it almost certainly wasn’t harmless. Here is the little mold miracle, still freshly emerged and yet already doing the stanky leg in the last picture.

I took the funky little guy out of the vivarium and instead kept them with the others, because otherwise it would’ve been up against a jumping spider, two grass spiders, and a narrow mouthed toad. I will note that while its head shape was abnormal, it seemed healthy and acted just like the rest. Following these pictures, more have emerged from both the container ootheca and fragment and the piece in the vivarium. When I released this next group the total amount of healthy babies hatched was 18!

Since then, a few more have emerged, and right now I’m holding on to five; one emerged in the vivarium, the others were in the container. For the sake of cleanliness and visibility I swapped out the dirt and rock they used to have for paper towels and a piece of folded note card, which was scored and poked with a needle to make sure it was suitable for them to climb on or hang under. Here is one little baby having a sippy! I water them by just wetting a corner of the paper towel so there’s no droplets that would otherwise be a drowning risk.

@onenicebugperday Little baberts!

[jack-of-all-inverts]

Nike

Stagmomantis carolina

Carolina Mantis - Adult Female

Chaperone of a new Era in my life.

Rest in peace, my Winged Victory. 🕊